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CHAPTER ONE

SURELY the run-up to Christ rain, a bitter wind and everyone looking as though they could dothe first littleof their Advent calendars today; there should be excite for them at least, even if snoasn’t provided

Rachel Ellington looked after the gri toddlers and a baby in a pushchair who had just elbowed her out of the ith such force it had hurt And the harassed mother wasn’t the only one with a face like thunder The paves and even huger attitude; power-dressed co traffic as they used their u each other in a ht break out as they waited in a bus queue that stretched for ever

Rachel glanced in the shopshe was passing and an enoraily wrapped presents and a sorin stared back at her It had been there since October, along with the fairy-lights and tinsel and Christmas tree

Of course, that was half the trouble The TV advertisean to whip up seasonal jollity so far in advance that by the beginning of Decerimaced as she realized she sounded just like her nore the drips of freezing water trickling down her neck She’d forgotten her uain

She wouldn’t go as far as her mother, who advocated a return to the days when the tree was dressed and decorations put up not an hour before Christ containing an orange, apple and nuts, along with a shiny coin and one present only, but there was so to be said for the old days when the latest ‘ had been unheard of And when a etting you into bed

She stood stock still as she realized what she’d just thought, causing major chaos for a moment as the people behind cannoned into her and each other

Where had that little piece of cynicisised all round and started walking again She was over Giles, she had been forweeks in the summer when she had felt the whole world knew she’d been taken for a fool by thethe rest of her life with, she’d become aware Giles had hurt her pride more than her heart Which had caused her a few ine herselfhis proposal of lad he was out of her life the next? It was positively scary when you thought about it

Not that it had exactly been the next minute, she qualified silently She’d endured a few hellish weeks before that had co nearly a stone in weight, which had given her a scrawny alleycat look Already too thin by her own estiain, and she’d indulged in chocolate éclairs and other calorie-packed treats by the bucketful until her modest curves were back Jennie and Susan, her flatreen with envy, which had been infinitely preferable to their pity of the preceding weeks

As she turned off the hfare into the maze of side streets that eventually led to the tiny ust of wind and rain almost blew her off her feet She normally enjoyed the brisk fifteen-ht was an ordeal She should have travelled by tube but she had an aversion to the underground at the best of ti and lethal umbrellas by the hundreds definitely wasn’t the best of times to journey in one of the packed rush-hour trains

By the time she turned the key in the lock of the door of the downstairs flat she’d shared with her two best friends since the three of them had left university five years before, she was soaked to the skin Her hair was plastered to her scalp, her mascara had run in rivulets down her cold cheeks and she was frozen to the -hot bath for an hour with a glass of wine and a good book, and as she was always ho before Jennie and Susan, there was no reason she shouldn’t

She almost fell into the small square hall and stood for a ether After leaving university with a very acceptable 21 in business studies and , she had obtained a post as assistant to the er of a fast-food chain The pay was excellent and she knew her strengths were a keen awareness of client needs and a very good business sense, along with a natural flair for organising and planning Unfortunately, on the latest project the sales team had failed to adequately follow up their part of the ht lies, it had been she who’d been left with egg on her face when the whole job had collapsed

Rachel pulled off her sodden coat and kicked off her shoes, the er Jeff’s face whe

n he’d taken her to task earlier that afternoon hu fro director himself, and hadn’t listened to a word she’d said in her defence

She had entered thepromotion could be fast, but her chosen career was not for the faint-hearted: pressures were intense and security was mostly non-existent She had been earmarked to take on Jeff’s role when he transferred to the northern branch of the company early in the new year, but whether that would happen noas anyone’s guess

She frowned fiercely All in all, she wouldn’t be sad to see the back of this year and Christ to be an endurance test She had met Giles at a daytime Christmas party her firm had held for clients past and present the previous year, and they’d had their first date that saive rise to some unwelcome memories